Song Information

1. Be Light For Our Eyes (David Haas)
There are many great songs by David Haas, and coincidently over the years I’ve often been the one chosen as cantor for them at mass, but I had to limit myself to only a few for this project. This is a nice up-tempo anthemic advent song, which I first heard on a recording of St Joseph’s 1987 Advent Vigil concert (about 16 months before I joined the choir). Curiously, it seems it’s never been done by my choir since.Music: Alan Cranny.
Cantors: Marc, Bonnie Fox-McIntyre.
Chorus: Karen Lahaise Mazur, Bonnie Fox-McIntyre, Louise Rathier, Debra Scarpelli, Marc, and Paul Therrien.

2. Come Journey, Come Worship (David Haas / John Michael Talbot)
This combines Come and Journey With Me by Haas with Come Worship the Lord by Talbot (based on Psalm 95). Both are nice songs on their own. Experimenting, I discovered that they overlap together very well and can be done as a duet. This song was included as part of my Illumination CD Release concert.Music: Armando.
Vocals: Marc, Louise Rathier.

3. We are One (Marc Coderre)
Composed August 2006.
The refrain borrows loosely from Ephesians 4:5 and Roman 12:5 and John 15:9 for the bridge. The song is about Christian unity and discipleship.Music: Alan Cranny.
Vocals: Marc.

4. Inspiration (Marc Coderre)
Composed summer 2007.
The first half, ‘Live for Me’, has an ascension theme to it as if these were parting words. The lyrics are recycled from another song (Follow Me) that I had written in 2005 (but felt was not good enough to be included on Illumination) and set to new music. It includes a veni sancte spiritus chant which I had originally written as a separate piece, but felt worked well as a kind of refrain here. The song then jumps into the up-tempo second part, ‘You Are My Inspiration’, which again was originally written as a separate piece but that I felt linked well with ‘Live For Me’.Music: Alan Cranny.
Vocals: Marc.

5. Remain in my Love (Marc Coderre)
Composed August 2006.
The verses here are based on John 15:9-12, which is a gospel reading often used at weddings, though the song is a call for peace. The refrain was inspired by the conflict in Lebanon in August 2006, but it’s about conflict in general. The main message is that one cannot claim to love God if they fail to love their neighbour.Music: Armando.
Vocals: Marc, Karen Lahaise Mazur.

6. I Will Be With You (James E Moore)
This and Lord of Our Nation are the two songs I’m most often requested to perform. I included it as part of my own wedding ceremony in 2003 and likewise for other people’s weddings since. It was well received when performed at my first CD release concert. The song is about God’s covenant to his people but has parallels with the vows of the married couple. In many ways this song best sums up the overall theme of this CD. More recently I sang this at the end of my wife’s funeral.Piano: Connie O’Connor Duff.
Vocals: Marc.

7. You And I Are Forever (Marc Coderre)
Composed in December 2008.
This is basically a wedding song, or more accurately a song about being committed to someone for life. The line “the love we shared will never die” which graced my wife’s memorial card and our grace monument comes from verse 3 of this song.Music: Alan Cranny.
Vocals: Marc.

8. Give Me Hope (Marc Coderre)
Composed summer 2007, with some modifications February 2009.
The verses were very frank about the way I was feeling. Everyone has days were they find life can be too much. It took a while to come up with a refrain, I worried that the verses were too full of angst so I decided with the refrain to make it a plea for help.Music: Alan Cranny.
Vocals: Marc.

9. Only In God (Psalm 62) (John Michael Talbot)
Illumination featured a healthy number of Talbot composions but there were at least a couple more that I felt I still had to record. I first heard this piece as done by Karen Lahaise on her first CD and liked it and when I heard the Talbot version it reinforced my feeling that it’s one of his best songs and I think it will fit in very well on my project.Acoustic guitar: Jim McIntyre. Additional music: Armando.
Vocals: Marc.

10. Days of Innocence (Marc Coderre)
Composed in August 2006.
This is about how sometimes we find ourselves at a point in our lives where we don’t seem to be where we think we should be or feel guilt for things we have done in the past. To some extent it is inspired by the prodigal son proverb.Music: Alan Cranny.
Vocals: Marc.

11. Redeemer Lord (John Foley)
While I gave up on the idea of doing a full album of St Louis Jesuits songs I still have a couple including this one. This is nice solo with choir piece that my choir (St Joseph’s) used to feature as part of the Advent Vigils concerts we used to have (1982 to 1994), though I was never the one who sang it at those occasions. The verses are a dramatic plea for the Lord to come to our aid, while the refrain is based on Psalm 23. It was part of the St Louis Jesuits 1981 album, Lord of Light.Music: Armando.
Lead vocals: Marc with Louise Rathier.
Chorus: Louise Rathier, Debra Scarpelli, Karen Lahaise Mazur, Bonnie Fox-McIntyre, Paul Therrien, Marc.

12. Song of the Risen One (David Haas)
This is obviously an Easter Sunday hymn, which our choir did a few years in the first half the 1990s. It’s a strong acclamatic number as Haas does well.Music: Alan Cranny.
Vocals: Marc, Paul Therrien.

13. Rejoice (Marc Coderre)
Composed April 2006.
This is the second song I wrote for this new CD, the first one, Hosanna, we decided wasn’t quite good enough. Rejoice is based on psalm 118, usually heard on Easter Sunday.Music: Alan Cranny.
Vocals: Marc, Debra Scarpelli, Paul Therrien.

14. If I’m in Your Heart (Marc Coderre)
Composed summer 2008.
I woke up with the refrain words and melody in my head. The idea here is how, even when the world seems full of anger and despair, with a little faith we can make a positive change.Music: Alan Cranny, featuring Paulo Muragara on organ.
Vocals: Marc with Debra Scarpelli.

15. These Alone are Enough (Dan Schutte)
Back in 2005 the St Louis Jesuits reunited for an new album called Morning Light and this song is from that. When I first heard this I was a caregiver for someone with a degenerative condition, and the song with words based on the “Suscipe” prayer of Ignatius of Loyola really struck a chord with me. Those who attended my Illumination CD release concert will recognise that I did an a capela version of this for my encore.Piano: Connie O’Connor Duff. Additional music: Armando.
Vocals: Marc.

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2 Responses to Song Information

Marc, I love the hymn “I Will be With You” but have been unable to find the piano sheet music (with chords) for it. I would greatly appreciate any help you could provide in finding a source for this. Thank you sincerely, Ray DiPilla

I Will Be With You (by James Moore) is published by GIA (Gregorian Institute of America) one of the big two publishers of (Catholic) liturgical music (the other big name is OCP (Oregon Catholic Press). (Both publishers are listed in my “links” page)

You can order the guitar version or the SATB version which is the choir version which usually has piano parts in it. Sometimes GIA has pdf files you can download for a fee but in this case they don’t. You need to order the octavo which costs $150 (plus shipping, which I assume varies depending if it stays within the US or crosses the boarder). Please note there are other I Will Be With You by other composers also published by GIA, the one you want is by James Moore.

The one time I ordered octavos from GIA I got a bunch of songs at the same time just to make it worth the shipping. I do not actually have I Will Be With You myself in octavo form since it is in the Gather Choir book and I made a photocopy from that that I use when I sing it. (Though by now, I know the words well enough not to really need the sheet music.) The choir books aren’t a bad way to go since you get hundreds of songs for $25 or so, but the shipping is pretty steep (given the weight of the book). I wanted to order the latest Gather book but found the shipping costs a bit much. Often they will compile a number of works by one composer into a song book you can get, which is fairly economical if you really like that composers – those typically have both the piano and guitar versions of each song. I have Our Blessing Cup which was put out by OCP containing many of John Michael Talbot’s songs and from the same publisher got Morning Light, the book that goes with the CD the St Louis Jesuits put out in 2005 and from whence comes “These Alone Are Enough”. That said, there doesn’t seem to be a collection of James Moore’s works. To be honest I am only familiar with two of his songs anyway, both are in the Gather choir book, the other one is “Spirit of God”.